Investment for older people

monaymadlol

Hi, my parents (in their early/mid 60s) have finally decided to become less suspicious and give stock and shares a go via an ISA wrapper. Thing is they're in their 60s, so I was looking at not like a 20 or 30 year timeline, but something will grow more than the current abysmal bank interest rates.
They're open to a little risk, but obviously cautious.
Thinking the Vls 60 products...any thoughts on this?

Albermarle

Depending on the amounts involved and whether either of them is still working , they maybe better off investing via a pension than a S&S ISA due to the tax benefit . 
You can hold the same type of investments in either .

dunstonh

Why ISA and not pension as the tax wrapper?

AlanP_2

Why not 20-30 years? If there is a specific date in mind what is it?

What is the proportion beiong invested compared to other assets? Still working and earning or retired? Good or bad pensions to look forward to?

There isn't a one size fits all answer.

JohnWinder

Could be quite a good choice, hard to know. But it might help you to have a look at the longer term history of what sort of returns and what sort of wild swings in value such a fund has had and therefore might well have in the future. The portfoliovisualiser website helps you do this.

The site probably won't help you with VLS60 specifically, but you could make up a portfolio with a similar mix of stocks and bonds to see what has happened. Even that will be of limited value because VLS is UK biased, so you'd need to account for that. But despite those shortcomings you'll finish up knowing more than you do now, and a lot more than just looking at the VLS60 fact sheet, and it will have cost you nothing.

Robin9

@monaymadlol Not sure that your parents in their early/mid 60's would like to be described as "older" but a good time in life to take "stock"  as they are probably coming towards the end of their working life, mortgage paid off, kids flown the nest, state pension still a few years away - perhaps wanting to see a bit of the world but with less income and paying for those trades they used to do themselves.

Mickey666

What would people in their mid-60s be investing FOR?   Most people invest for their future when they are younger and have plenty of time.  By their mid-60s they should ideally be planning to reap the rewards of investments and start spending money rather than saving and investing it.

Other opinions are available of course, but I've always thought that any money you die with is money you might just have well never had.  If I manage to time things right I'm aiming to die more or less penniless, having either spent it all or given it away.

Linton

monaymadlol said:

Hi, my parents (in their early/mid 60s) have finally decided to become less suspicious and give stock and shares a go via an ISA wrapper. Thing is they're in their 60s, so I was looking at not like a 20 or 30 year timeline, but something will grow more than the current abysmal bank interest rates.
They're open to a little risk, but obviously cautious.
Thinking the Vls 60 products...any thoughts on this?

VLS60 is not cautious and the potential falls could well upset someone unused to investing. Perhaps VLS20 or VLS40 would be more appropriate.  Or of course there is a whole world outside Vanguard.

Aged

monaymadlol said:

Hi, my parents (in their early/mid 60s) have finally decided to become less suspicious and give stock and shares a go via an ISA wrapper. Thing is they're in their 60s, so I was looking at not like a 20 or 30 year timeline, but something will grow more than the current abysmal bank interest rates.
They're open to a little risk, but obviously cautious.
Thinking the Vls 60 products...any thoughts on this?

Hi there, I'm of the same generation as your parents and have been thinking along the same lines. Have always been a 'saver' rather than an investor and was happy that way until recently. I'm still not 100% sure about moving my 'safe' cash reserves into an environment where it's at risk. I was considering VLS60, but it has an FE risk rating of 50 which is bang in the middle. I worry that going lower down the equities scale would mean too little return, making it not worth while after the charges are met. 

Notepad_Phil

Mickey666 said:

What would people in their mid-60s be investing FOR?   Most people invest for their future when they are younger and have plenty of time.  By their mid-60s they should ideally be planning to reap the rewards of investments and start spending money rather than saving and investing it.

Well we're not quite there yet, but mid-60s is not too far away for us and at that time we'll be investing for the next 30 years of retirement that we'll hopefully still be looking forward to (especially Mrs Notepad whose mother in her 90s still has a wide range of investments amongst her savings).

Eco_Miser

Mickey666 said:

What would people in their mid-60s be investing FOR?   Most people invest for their future when they are younger and have plenty of time.  By their mid-60s they should ideally be planning to reap the rewards of investments and start spending money rather than saving and investing it.

Other opinions are available of course, but I've always thought that any money you die with is money you might just have well never had.  If I manage to time things right I'm aiming to die more or less penniless, having either spent it all or given it away.

Well, I'm 71 and investing for an income for the next 20-30 years. No point in taking it all out now and letting inflation work it's magic disappearing trick.

On your second point, yes, money left over when you die does seem wasted, but it's been generating the income you've been living off since (early) retirement, and it's been there in case care home fees were needed.

If you time things wrong, you could be living on cold beans for a long time. (Not really, the State Pension is enough to afford warm beans.)

If you want to die penniless, but not live penniless, buy an annuity with all your spare money. An insurance company will be pleased to bet (on their odds) that you'll die before they've returned all your money.